Blackmail (1929 film)
| Blackmail | |
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 original poster |
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| Directed by | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Produced by | John Maxwell (uncredited) |
| Written by | Play: Charles Bennett Adaption: Alfred Hitchcock Dialogue: Benn W. Levy |
| Starring | Anny Ondra John Longden Cyril Ritchard |
| Music by | Hubert Bath (uncredited) |
| Cinematography | Jack E. Cox |
| Editing by | Emile de Ruelle |
| Distributed by | Wardour Films Ltd. (UK) Sono Art (US) |
| Release date(s) | June 30, 1929 (UK) October 6 (US) |
| Running time | 84 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Blackmail is a 1929 thriller/drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Anny Ondra, John Longden, and Cyril Ritchard, and featuring Donald Calthrop, Sara Allgood and Charles Paton. It's based on the play Blackmail by Charles Bennett, as adapted by Hitchcock, with dialogue by Benn Levy. The film, which began production as a silent film, but was converted to sound during shooting, is considered to be the first all-talkie British film.
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Plot
Scotland Yard Detective Frank Webber (Longden) escorts his girlfriend Alice White (Ondra) to a tea house. They have an argument and Alice leaves with Mr. Crewe (Ritchard), an artist whom she has earlier agreed to meet. At his studio, Crewe sings and plays "Miss Up-to-Date" on the piano. Alice innocently flirts with the artist. He convinces her to try on a dress then attempts to assault her as she is changing. Alice grabs a nearby bread knife and stabs him to death.
Alice leaves after attempting to conceal any evidence of her presence in the flat. She has, however, unknowingly left her gloves behind. The next day Frank is assigned to the case and finds one of the gloves. He realizes the glove belongs to Alice and visits Alice at her father's shop. Local petty thief Tracey (Donald Calthrop), who saw Alice at the artist's flat earlier, interrupts the two and attempts to blackmail the couple. Frank tells Tracey his attempt will fail.
The tables are turned when Tracey becomes the chief suspect after the artist's landlady identifies him as being at the scene of the crime. Tracey flees and is pursued by the police. He clambers onto the domed roof of the British Museum and is killed after falling through a glass panel of the dome.
Alice feels compelled to confess she killed the artist and goes to Scotland Yard. She attempts to talk to the Chief Inspector but is escorted out by Frank.
Cast
- Anny Ondra as Alice White
- Sara Allgood as Mrs. White
- Charles Paton as Mr. White
- John Longden as Det. Frank Webber
- Donald Calthrop as Tracy
- Cyril Ritchard as Mr. Crewe (the artist)
- Hannah Jones as Mrs. Humphries (the landlady)
- Harvey Braban as The Chief Inspector (sound version)
- Ex-Det. Sergt. Bishop as The Detective Sergeant
- Johnny Butt as Sergeant (uncredited)
- Alfred Hitchcock as Man on subway (uncredited)
- Phyllis Konstam as bit part (uncredited)
- Sam Livesey as The Chief Inspector (silent version, uncredited)
- Phyllis Monkman as Gossip (uncredited)
- Percy Parsons as Crook (uncredited)
Production
The film began production as a silent film. To cash in on the new found popularity of talkies the film's producer, John Maxwell of British International Pictures, gave Hitchcock the go-ahead to film a portion of the movie in sound. Hitchcock thought the idea absurd and surreptitiously filmed almost the entire feature in sound along with a silent version for theatres not yet equipped for talking pictures.
Blackmail, marketed as Britain's first "all-talkie" feature, was recorded in the RCA Photophone sound-on-film process. In July 1925, a short film, The Gentleman, had been released in London in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process. In March 1929, a feature film The Clue of the New Pin, a part-talkie based on an Edgar Wallace novel, was trade-shown with The Crimson Circle, a German-UK coproduction which was also based on a Wallace novel. Crimson was filmed in DeForest Phonofilm, and Pin was made in British Phototone, a sound-on-disc process using 12-inch phonograph records synchronized with the film.
Lead actress Anny Ondra was raised in Prague and had a heavy Czech accent that was felt unsuitable for the film. Sound was in its infancy at the time and it was impossible to post dub Anny's voice. Rather than replace Anny and re-shoot her portions of the film actress Joan Barry was hired to actually speak the dialogue off-camera while Anny lip-synched them for the film. This makes Ondra's performance seem slightly awkward. Anny Ondra's career in the UK was hurt by sound. She returned to Germany and retired from films after making a few additional movies and marrying boxer Max Schmeling. However, an amusing test film has survived of Hitchcock "interviewing" Ondra, in which director teases the actress and asks her some personal questions.
Hitchcock used several elements that would become Hitchcock "trademarks" including a beautiful blonde in peril and a famous landmark in the finale. Without informing the producers, Hitchcock used the Schüfftan process to film the scenes in the Reading Room of the British Museum since the light levels were too low for normal filming.
The film was a critical and commercial hit. The sound was praised as inventive. A completed silent version of Blackmail was released in 1929 shortly after the talkie version hit theaters. The silent version of Blackmail actually ran longer in theaters and proved more popular, largely because most theaters in Britain were not yet equipped for sound. Despite the popularity of the silent version, history best remembers the landmark talkie version of Blackmail. It is the version now generally available although some critics consider the silent version superior. Alfred Hitchcock filmed the silent version with Sam Livesey as the Chief Inspector and the sound version with Harvey Braban in the same role.
Hitchcock's cameo
Alfred Hitchcock's cameo, a signature occurrence in many of Hitchcock's films, shows him being bothered by a small boy as he reads a book on the London Underground. This is probably the lengthiest cameo Hitchcock performed in his film career. As the director became better-known to audiences, especially when he appeared as the host of his own television series, he dramatically shortened his on-screen appearances.
Copyright status
There are two views as to the status of the film's copyright:
- Copyright has already expired, per the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, because the film was released more than 70 years ago.
- Copyright is applicable until 2050 (over 70 years from death of Hitchcock), per the copyright on Directive harmonizing the term of copyright protection#Films and photographs.
In the U.S., a public domain DVD has been released, based on the former view. On the other hand, Canal+ which holds the present copyright, asserts copyright continuation based on the latter view. In Japan, there are a number of public domain DVDs based on the copyright law of that country, which holds that the copyright of movies issued before 1953 has expired.
References
Notes
Bibliography
- Ryall, Tom, Blackmail (London: British Film Institute, 1993)
External links
- Blackmail at the Internet Movie Database
- Blackmail at the TCM Movie Database
- Blackmail at Allmovie
- Blackmail at BFI screenonline
- Blackmail Eyegate Gallery
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